Our Teachers
Teachers are the core of all good programs. The faculty at IEC has years of experience teaching in United States, South America, Europe, and Asia.
Faculty Bios
Ali Tubio
Ali graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a BA in Modern Languages and Literatures (Spanish and German) and received her MA TESOL from San Francisco State University. Ali lived in southern Spain for one year to study Spanish, and from 2004-2005 she taught English in Austria with the Fulbright Program. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, dancing salsa, reading and travelling. Ali is thrilled to be teaching ESL in the Bay Area, and has been teaching at IEC since 2007.
Ann Carlson
Ann has been teaching at IEC for five years. She spent one year teaching in Japan as part of an exchange program with her school district. She has lived and taught in Prague in the Czech republic, and in Kinshasa in the Congo. She taught ESL to immigrant students for almost 20 years in Alaska. She received her MA from SIT in Brattleboro, Vermont, and her BA from Goddard College. Currently she lives in Berkeley with her son and his family.
Anrisa Fannin
Anrisa has been at IEC since 2002. She got her B.A. at U.C. Berkeley in Geography and her M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from San Francisco State. She also teaches ESL classes at Diablo Valley College. In her free time, she tutors at Buddha Gate Monastery and travels. She has lived and worked in Germany and Italy.
Beth Wadell
Beth Wadell earned her B.A. in English literature from U.C. Berkeley, and her M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from San Francisco State University. She has taught English in Mexico and lived in Argentina. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading, hiking and traveling.
Clarissa Ryan
Clarissa Ryan has a master’s degree in TESOL and a TESOL certificate from CSU East Bay. Previously, she studied East Asian Studies at Stanford University and East Asian history at the University of Arkansas. She has also studied Mandarin Chinese at National Taiwan University's ICLP and Japanese at Mission College. In addition to teaching, she is active in CATESOL and writes two teaching-related blogs. In her spare time, she likes hiking, reading, trying new restaurants, learning to cook healthy food, sketching, listening to music, and trying to improve her Japanese skills.
Dennis Imada
Dennis has been at IEC since it started in 2000. He received his Master's degree in (Teaching) English as a Second Language from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has taught ESL in Hawaii, Japan and California. He has also worked in cross-cultural training and development for multinational firms. In his free time he enjoys repairing and riding bicycles and surfing.
Evan de Gennaro
Evan graduated from Seattle University in 1999 with a B.A. in Sociology, and in 2007 from the University of San Francisco with a teaching credential and Master's degree in teaching English as a Second Language. He lived in Tokushima (Sadamitsu), Japan for 3 years teaching English through the JET program. He taught English for 5 years at Mt. Diablo High School. In his free time he enjoys surfing, making hip-hop music, drinking coffee, laughing and spending time with family and friends.
Jeff Puccini
Jeff got his BA from the University of Wisconsin in English Lit, his TESOL Certificate and MAT from SIT. He has taught abroad in Venezuela and South Korea. He is a licensed SIT TESOL Certificate teacher trainer. His recent interests in the classroom include the lexical approach and reflection. When he's not teaching, he enjoys hiking, biking, and camping in the Bay Area, and beyond. On the weekends he likes to read and drink coffee. Read more about Jeff 
Jenn Gemma
Jenn has been teaching for over ten years, including Spanish and ESL. She received her Masters Degree at St, Mary's College of California and taught in Spain for three years before returning to the United States. Jenn is also a teacher trainer and has trained in the US, Spain, Korea, Mauritania, and Mexico.
Jon Toussaint
I graduated from The University of California at Los Angeles in 1996 and began teaching ESL in both the Mt. Diablo and Oakland School Districts. Teaching, and specifically teaching foreign students and immigrants was a logical career choice since I had always felt drawn to people from disparate cultures. I had in fact finished up my Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA in Brazil as part of the study abroad program, where I completed a semester at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro and a semester at the Federal University of Ceara in the city of Fortaleza. In 2008 I attended San Francisco State University where I received my Master of Arts Degree in Comparative World Literature. I began teaching at IEC in the summer of 2011. I live in Pleasant Hill with a cat.
Joshua Kurzweil
Josh began his teaching career in 1990. He has taught and trained in Japan, Spain, the Republic of Georgia, and the United States. He received his Master's degree in teaching from SIT, holds the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA, and a Master Practitioner Certificate in NLP. Josh has been involved in developing the curriculum for the SIT TESOL Certificate and is a trainer of trainers. In addition to working on the SIT course, Josh has been a trainer with the Peace Corps and does freelance consulting. His particular areas of interest include Experiential Learning and cross-cultural communication. Josh lives with his wife and son in Berkeley, California.
Read the English Teaching Professional review of Joshua's new book, Understanding Teaching Through Learning (.pdf)
Matty Varban
Matty began teaching English in Germany, where she lived for eight years. After returning to the United States, she attended the University of Maryland and earned a Master’s in Education specializing in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Upon moving to California, she worked as an ESL instructor at the University of California, San Diego for thirteen years. In addition, she coordinated short-term programs. Once her family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004, she started working at Contra Costa College in the ESL department. In the summer of 2006, she began teaching at IEC and became a full-time teacher in the fall of 2006.
Suzanne Stoddard
Suzanne received her B.A. in English Literature from U.C. Berkeley and her M.A. in TESOL at San Francisco State University. She has taught in Russia and done Community ESL including Citizenship Preparation in a grant-funded program she helped design. She has worked for the Contra Costa Community College system since 1998, and when she's not teaching can be found protesting war, creating new recipes, writing poetry, mentoring young people or running almost anywhere. Read more about Suzanne
